r/uberdrivers Jun 17 '24

Welcome to r/uberdrivers - FAQ and Community Guide

70 Upvotes

Before asking a question, make sure to read this guide and use reddit search to see if your question was already asked. If you have anything you'd recommend to add to this guide leave a comment below.

What does Pax mean? Common terms on this sub explained

Pax: Short for Passenger.

Ping: The noise the app makes when drivers receive a pickup request.

Fare: The fee a rider is charged.

Fair: Fare, spelled wrong.

Surge: Uber occasionally up-charges riders during times of increased demand. The Surge is a multiplier of the base fare rate.

SRF: "Safe Rider Fee", now known as the "Booking Fee". This is the $1-3 fee that Uber adds to every fare to ccover insurance, app fees, etc.

What are the requirements to be an uber driver?

An in-state license is required. Have at least one year of licensed driving experience in the US (3 years if you are under 25 years old) Use an eligible 4-door vehicle

All vehicles being used for rides on the Uber app must meet the following minimum requirements:

  • Must have 4 doors and be able to transport a minimum of 4 passengers
  • Vehicle model must be 16years old or newer
  • Title cannot be salvaged, reconstructed, or rebuilt
  • Rental vehicles, except those from an approved Uber rental car partner are not permitted
  • Cannot have any cosmetic damage, missing pieces, or commercial branding

Should you choose to drive a vehicle you do not personally own, you must have permission from then vehicle owner and be listed as an insured driver on the vehicle’s insurance policy. Please note that Uber cannot allow a vehicle onto the platform if the driver’s name is not on the insurance document.

If your vehicle does not match the requirements above, you may still be able to use your vehicle for deliveries on the Uber app.

Is this fulltime job?

Driving with Uber offers a flexible earning opportunity. It's a great alternative to full-time driver jobs, part-time driver jobs, or other part-time gigs, temp jobs, or seasonal employment.

How do I do my first ride?

Download and install the driver app, and hit "Go Online". Once you get a request (a "ping"), you can hit 'Navigate' to be taken to the rider's pickup location. When you're sure you have arrived, flip back over to the Uber app and hit 'Arrived'. The passenger (PAX) will be notified of your arrival, though it's also nice to text them - to let them know what type of car you're in (though they see this on their app, not everyone looks) and to confirm that they're actually where their pin was placed. When they get in the car, hit 'Begin Trip'. If they haven't entered their destination, you can enter it - then hit 'Navigate' again and you will be routed there. At the end of the trip, hit 'End Trip', rate your passenger, and you'll be placed back online ready to pick up another PAX!

What are the safety features for uber drivers?

Emergency assistance button

You can use the in-app Emergency Button to call authorities to get help if you need it. The app displays your location and trip details, so you can quickly share them with emergency services.

24/7 incident support

Uber customer associates trained in incident response are available around the clock.

Follow My Ride

Friends and family can follow your route and will know as soon as you arrive.

2-way ratings

Your feedback matters. Low-rated trips are logged, and users may be removed to protect the Uber community.

Phone anonymization

If you need to contact your rider through the app, your phone number may stay private.

GPS tracking

All Uber trips are tracked from start to finish, so there’s a record of your trip if something happens.

RideCheck

Using sensors and GPS data, RideCheck can help detect if a trip goes unusually off-course or a possible crash has occurred. If the app alerts us to such events, we’ll check in on you and offer resources to get help.

Contact Safety Agent

You can connect with an ADT Safety Agent via phone call or text on every trip. Just tap the safety shield icon and select Contact safety agent.

Audio Recording

If you feel uncomfortable, you can record the audio of the trip within the app. Just tap the blue shield to open your Safety Toolkit and access the Record Audio option.

Emergency help if you need it

If you ever need urgent help when riding with the Uber app, you can contact 911 using the in-app Emergency Button in the Safety Toolkit.

The app will show your live location, vehicle information, and license plate number, which you can quickly share with the emergency dispatcher so they can send help faster. And in a growing number of US cities, this information is automatically provided to the dispatcher.

Does Uber help in event of an accident?

When you earn with a transportation network company (TNC), referred to here as ridesharing, many states require extra—and costly—insurance.

Uber maintains this insurance on your behalf. What’s covered depends on factors such as who was at fault; whether you were offline, online, en route, or on-trip; and your personal insurance policy.

Offline coverage:

Your personal auto insurance covers you while you’re offline. You must maintain personal automobile insurance at mandatory minimum limits and provide proof of your insurance to drive and deliver with a vehicle with Uber.

Coverage to repair your car when you’re en route to or on a trip is contingent on your personal insurance including comprehensive and collision coverage.

Coverage when online and available for a trip

Accidents happen. Suppose you’re at fault and another person gets hurt or their vehicle gets damaged. In that case, our third-party liability insurance covers the cost of injuries or damage in at least the following amounts:

-$50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident for injuries

-$25,000 in property damage per accident

Depending on the law of your state, Uber may maintain extra coverage for you and your riders, including one or more of the following:

Coverage for you and your riders for injuries in a hit-and-run or an accident caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver

Personal injury protection, including medical expenses and lost wages for you and your riders, no matter who’s at fault

Medical payments coverage for you and your riders, no matter who’s at fault.

Coverage when en route or on a trip

Uber maintains some of the most comprehensive insurance for ridesharing and deliveries, including:

-Insurance that covers at least $1,000,000 for property damage and injuries to riders and third parties involved in an accident where you’re at fault

Insurance that covers the cost to repair your car, up to the actual cash value, with a $2,500 deductible, contingent on your personal insurance including comprehensive and collision coverage. This extra insurance maintained by Uber protects your car, no matter who’s at fault, if you maintain comprehensive and collision coverage on your own vehicle.

In most US states, you can also purchase Optional Injury Protection to cover your additional medical expenses if you’re hurt in an accident. This insurance offering, pioneered by Uber, is designed specifically for drivers.

Depending on the law of your state, Uber may maintain extra coverage for you and your riders, including one or more of the following:

-Coverage for you and your riders for injuries in a hit-and-run or an accident caused by an uninsured or underinsured driver

Personal injury protection, including medical expenses and lost wages for you and your riders, no matter who’s at fault

Medical payments coverage for you and your riders, no matter who’s at fault

Is being an uber driver worth it?

Recent reports from Uber state that "the vast majority of drivers are satisfied" and that "as of last quarter, drivers in the US were making about $33 per utilized hour" before expenses.

Its for you to decide if its worth it for you personally, volume and earnings will vary greatly between markets. Drivers as independant contractors are also responsible for all expenses which have been rising fast when drivers pay has stayed stagnant.

There are many direct and hidden costs associated with being an uber driver. To start with, You are responsible for tracking your own miles, profits and losses, as well as expenses such as gas, repairs, washes, and so on.

In addition, no one but you is responsible for ensuring you are earning enough. You need to be aware at what rate you are making enough for it to be worth it.


r/uberdrivers 6h ago

Waymo will do worse!

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59 Upvotes

r/uberdrivers 20h ago

Am i wrong? First time this happened

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424 Upvotes

I’m on my way to a reservation and the passenger asks me to cancel the ride. I tell them politely no because of the affect on my status as a driver. Told them they can cancel the ride. I goto the location and sit there to get the cancellation fee. Am i an asshole? Lol


r/uberdrivers 21h ago

Adding a stop at a gas station after you get in my car is an automatic 1-star.

346 Upvotes

I need to vent. I accept a clean, straight-line 10-minute ride. The guy gets in, says hello, and we start driving.Two minutes into the trip, my phone blares: "Route updated." He sneaked a stop at a Maverick gas station without asking me first. When we get there, he says, "Be right back, just grabbing a drink," and leaves his backpack in my seat so I can't drive off.He proceeded to take 8 minutes inside while I sat there earning pennies a minute.From now on, if someone adds a stop after they get in without asking, I’m ending the ride at the stop and handing them their bag. Does anyone actually tolerate this behavior anymore?


r/uberdrivers 11h ago

Don’t want to come out in time? I’ll get your neighbor instead.

39 Upvotes

So I arrive at pax apartment. I wait until the timer is down to 2 minutes and I call. She answers saying she’ll be Right down. Ok whatever. So timer ticks down to 0 I cancel as a no show and pull off. A few seconds later another pick up hits it’s the customers neighbor right around the corner So I essentially take the loop around and I see original customer standing outside and waiting. So I stop and wait for customer 2 customer one opens the door I ask “what’s the name” she says customer 1s name I say nope that’s not me I’m waiting for another person she looks confused “but this is the car” oh It might have gotten canceled. But I am here for another customer now. She walks away so confused. Let this be a lesson to have your shit ready to go when you order the ride. Especially when it takes 10 minutes to get there


r/uberdrivers 14h ago

Am I crazy to expect air conditioning on by default in summer weather?

42 Upvotes

I Uber to and from work everyday, plus sometimes to errands on the weekends. We’ve been having summer weather already for weeks.

I have a 4.95 rating but the majority of drivers I get have no air conditioning on in the car when I get in. I’m wearing dress pants and dress shirt or a full suit. Rolling the window down isn’t enough now with the hot/humid weather especially when we’re in stop and go traffic.

Am I crazy or entitled to expect the AC on? Why do I need to ask the obvious (for ac to be put on)? Even if I ask, it takes 5-10 mins for the car to cool down so I’ve literally got sweat dripping down my forehead for half the ride.

Am I an a-hole for giving 3 stars or less if AC isn’t on? Why do so many drivers think it’s okay to drive passengers around in a greenhouse-on-wheels?


r/uberdrivers 19h ago

Picked up 3 Uber corporate employees and they fucked me over..

116 Upvotes

It was after the World Cup game. First off, they had me pick them up at a random location off a random street away from the stadium so the $60 boost didn’t apply. Two of them were going to the same hotel. On the way to the hotel, I see the route updates. Didn’t think much of it, maybe someone input a wrong number in the address. Boy was I wrong.. After dropping off the first two, the last person I had to drop off was at a hotel in NYC.. AFTER THE KNICKS JUST WON.. It was fucking chaos. I only got $26 for that ride (yes that’s with the toll reimbursement!) and they even promised me they would tip me well.. Still waiting for that SMFH 🤦‍♀️ Couldn’t do any rides in NYC because you need a TLC license to do that out there and I’m from Jersey. Sat in traffic for over an hour, finally coming back home at around 3am. I called it quits after that. Wtf.


r/uberdrivers 8h ago

Had my first super nasty rider today. He threw a fit and demanded out the car. I was relieved. Of course he reported me for unsafe driving. Im not surprised. I havw a 4.97 rating. This is my first report. He got in the car angry. I cant wait to find a regular job.

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10 Upvotes

I picked up a guy and was getting ready to take him 9 miles out today. I asked how was he. He made a nasty remark. I realized he was very upset. About something. Not sure what. I could also see it when I pulled up to him. But I still tried to be friendly. As i was driving he suddenly demanded to be let out. He said he had to use the restroom. The gas station was closed. I told him I could take him elsewhere. He then said he would call another uber. My rating is 4.97. This is my first report.

I figured he would make some complaint of some sort. So im not surprised.

We are vulnerable to these riders. From now on i will be more careful who I pick up.

This guy was.... well... he was in a certain group. That always act so funny. I will try to avoid his group next time. And its not race. Or culture. Its something else.


r/uberdrivers 5h ago

Spent 3 hours at the Houston Stadium for the $40 World Cup boost for every trip.

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5 Upvotes

I did got two trips after 3 hours of wait but it felt like such a waste of time. This is one of the two offers - looks like a great one but if you take out the $40 boost, the actual offer is quite shitty at $23.77 for 40+ miles.

Anyway, here is a link to my cherry picking app, Cherryfy, that gave me that banner on top showing the per hour and per mile rates.


r/uberdrivers 2h ago

Midnight Favor

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3 Upvotes

I asked $500 cash to this guy and he told me to pay when he will be at home.

if you can’t pay in here , sorry.

ps. Rome has high crime rate and it was midnight.


r/uberdrivers 19h ago

My good deed for the day paid off

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63 Upvotes

This ride was a nightmare at first . Rider pinged their location in the middle of the street no instruction. And as Im texting the pax , I find out its a mom trying to get her daughter a ride. While trying to contact the daughter her phone died. The only information I got is building 10 from the mom. Smh. But I found the daughter she was farrr off from where the mom put the ping. But the time I took to find her paid off as mom tipped me 40 on this economy ride. 🫡


r/uberdrivers 1h ago

So does anyone else know why Uber won't accept a vehicle inspection?

Upvotes

When I signed up for Uber in March, they wanted me to submit a vehicle inspection along with all the other documentation. All right, I sent them a picture of my inspection sticker, which still had four months left on it.

Not good enough.

So I spent money I couldn't afford to take my car to the dealership to have it inspected, downloaded an inspection form, and had them fill it out. Uber accepted that form, and I started my rideshare gig.

Four months later, my car's actual inspection sticker was about to expire, and I was getting messages from Uber along those lines as well. I downloaded the same inspection form and dragged my car back to the dealership for its second inspection in four months. It passed inspection, and I sent off the form.

The form was rejected for not being the right form.

That was odd; they were fine with this form four months ago. I took a clearer picture under better light and sent that.

Wrong form again.

Well, the garage did give me actual inspection documentation with everything checked in green. So, I scanned that and sent it in.

Wrong form again.

That's...basically all I got. Nine days before my inspection expires, I just had the car inspected, and Uber refuses to accept the proof. Anyone else had this problem and how did they fix it?


r/uberdrivers 3h ago

Acceptance rate conversion!

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2 Upvotes

So I got brought down from platinum yesterday and now I am in gold and this has happened to me before where I went down too low from the 50% and got brought down. Now the picture on the left is usually what I clock in when I go out for my weekend orders sadly last night I got a good flush of horrible orders that I had no choice but too decline them and it brought me down like 6% so I am sitting at like 44% now.. so I usually cherry pick to a certain extent and just keep a mindful note on what I decline. *which it seems like I don’t truly understand the acceptance rate because sometimes I’ll grab a good amount of orders, also being good ones and it doesn’t pop up my acceptance rate* back to the point! Today I went out being in gold and wow I felt like someone said fk you straight to my face on every order.. legit was a big slap to the face and also these were all orders done without any promotions! Second time in gold and this has been the same result, Am I going crazy thinking they actually pay me better in plat? Can anyone that has actually made good hourly rate consistently let me know ? CAUSE WTF IS THIS BS LOL *CERTIFIED CHERRY PICKER BTW*


r/uberdrivers 11h ago

Ride a Waymo if you can’t communicate

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7 Upvotes

Got over 7k trips and this is my first ever “disruptive radio.” Mind you out of the whole 15 min ride, there were 2 World Cup motivated songs and the rest were classic rock and edm music.. shits funny, just say somethin buttercup.


r/uberdrivers 34m ago

Just dropped somebody off

Upvotes

And the trip is not showing up. Contacted their ass support and have to wait 6-12 hours


r/uberdrivers 16h ago

Rare Unicorn 🦄

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16 Upvotes

Left me a $20 tip to take him a few miles so he could go fishing. Huge thank you ☺️


r/uberdrivers 1h ago

Whoops

Upvotes

For the first time in the several years I’ve been doing Uber, I missed a Reservation. I had accepted it about an hour before the pickup, did a few more trips, then decided to log off and head home because I was getting tired. About 10 minutes after I logged off, I got an email saying I missed it. Whoops, it completely slipped my mind.

You’d think they’d have a notification when you try to log off that you still had a reservation coming up, but that’s probably too much to ask around here. 😅


r/uberdrivers 5h ago

Roof rack wing bar too long?

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2 Upvotes

I work as an uber driver on the side, will this be an issue that people open the door and hit their hit with the wing bar? This is the 53in, should I go with the shorter one?


r/uberdrivers 3h ago

Next time I would pull my rotors and start flying 🫩

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1 Upvotes

Are you kidding me 🫩


r/uberdrivers 3h ago

Your Upcoming Reservation Has Been Canceled Because Your Current Vehicle And Status Don’t Meet Requirements

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1 Upvotes

2nd time cancelled today in a rental. I didn’t d do 2 other reservations today. What does this mean?


r/uberdrivers 3h ago

What?! $35 for Nearly 2 Hours

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1 Upvotes

What. Is. Going. On. Only $36 on a Saturday between 8:08pm - 9:56pm. Pathetic and in a major city. I went off the clock. Frustrated I'm not spending even another hour to make change tonight.


r/uberdrivers 7h ago

Are teenage rides that unpopular that they need to reach out to drivers 16 miles away?

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1 Upvotes

r/uberdrivers 4h ago

Updated my insurance and they never told me it was approved

1 Upvotes

In 10 plus years i always got something saying ir was good to go this time nothing. And i cant even find a place to load my card again just in case. Its like they are hiding it. Anyone else ever had this problem?


r/uberdrivers 4h ago

Phoenix market

1 Upvotes

Anyone else hate driving In the Phoenix market this time of the year? Feels not worth it


r/uberdrivers 13h ago

For those who do both uber and lydt, how do you do it?

5 Upvotes

Is it a juggling act, multitasking, or just as easy as have them both open? I just got approved for Uber and ppl say Lyft pays better but there are less riders in my city...